Switzerland - The flight & the Itinerary

15 years ago when I first visited Switzerland and till now, this country has always given me the impression of clockwork railway network, the land of time and milk powder.

Being situated right in Europe Alps with numerous lakes, this country made itself efficient by creating a vast network of railway lines. Frommers will tell you that the Swiss Railway System crosses so many mountains and valleys that the 'medieval pilgrims would have considered an act of God'. How on earth did they manage to dig a huge tunnel high up in the cold mountains 100 years ago?

So efficient is their rail that in the railway website, they'll even offer you the numerous scenic routes or excursion rails to take so you can enjoy their country as much and affordable as possible. It makes my planning so much easier (unlike Japan) and everything is flexible: Stay as long as you like in a city/town and then hop on to the next train when you like it.

Frankly, I like this country so much, I've visited some of the places more than once. But for WF, its his first. So I plotted the itinerary from the West (Geneva) to the East (Zurich) for the 13 days trip. And simply following the "GoldenPass Line": Geneva - Montreaux - Interlaken - Lucerne - Zurich. Where we will be able to cover watchmaking, finance, lakes, mountains and cheese & chocolate topics.

Some interesting facts about this country:
Land of Time: luxury watch brands hails from this country: Patek Philippe, Blanpain, Breguet, Rolex etc. But NOT cuckoo clocks (I'll share more in subsequent entries).

Milk powder: Henri Nestle, inventor of milk powder is a Swiss. That's why you see a lot of cows and wheat while travelling on the train.

Chocolate: Milk chocolate came from them as well (Note: Choc with milk. Not cocao beans or dark chocolate). And Lindt, a Swiss, invented the conching method (that's how we get smooth creamy chocolate).

And the surprising one for me, Maggi: Came from Julius Maggie who invented stock cubes and now has become a common household name for instant noodles, seasonings and of course, stock cubes!!

They have FOUR national language (and apparently the locals are very proud of it too): Because Switzerland shares the same border with Italy (south), Germany (North) and France (west), they have Italian, German and French as well as Romansh as their national languages. So if you travel to the west of Switzerland, people speaks French there but to the south, it'll be Italian. Thus, all their official documents are published in 4 languages. The children there usually learn THREE languages (we're already complaining when we learn only 2): German, French/Italian and English. No wonder this country churns out one of the highest GDP and is one of the top competitive country. They can speak to almost everybody except maybe the Chinese (Mandarin). And it makes perfect sense for UNESCO, UNICEF, UN, Red Cross, WTO to set up offices there. You get abundance of interpreters...

So much about facts. I should get started on the photos.

Beautiful clouds like cotton balls, seen from the aircraft window:

Of course, I went on a movie marathon (being so deprived of movies back home).

And the view of towns and lakes of Switzerland before we touch down:


Upon arrival at Zurich airport, we took a train to Geneva which is a three hours ride (east to west journey). And WF make full use of his time reading up the guide books on Geneva (subesquently he always do that when we're travelling to the next city/town). As with his carefree holiday style, he had no idea where we're going except to Switzerland. And on the day we left home, he only took his passport and cash. I don't think he knew what clothes I packed for him or whether did I pack anything for him:


And its all quiet on their trains... because:

My Birthday

My birthday this year happens to fall on a public holiday. So I get to celebrate with the Malays on Monday, though for different reasons.

Still suffering from jet lag (we came back on Friday), we decided to go easy and went to ION for my birhtday lunch, with the kids. Since we've never been there. Upon seeing a cantonese restaurant (Canton-i) on our way down from the carpark, we immediately went in. We've been rather deprived of good and authentic Chinese food after 2 weeks of Swiss food.

If you know WF's taste for food, then this is the restaurant to go for nice wanton noodles. His verdict for this signature dish: good and comparable to some wanton stalls in HKG. I must say, their noodles is really springy and wanton is crunchy. The decor of this restaurant is really nice too.

There are a few 'rare' this birthday:
Those of you who knows Uncle Lim aka WF, he's not a man of birthday cakes, presents and flowers (hey, how did I fall for him in the first place??).

For the many years we've been together, I believe this is the SECOND cake he bought for me. And weirdly, he bought me a PANDAN cake.

Now, who on earth will buy a pandan cake as birthday cake. And does he knows that other than Bengawan Solo, Parkway Parade also has Four Leaves, Breadtalk and Chocz which sells the real kind of birthday cake? Hmmm.... No wonder he's called UNCLE.

Then I get a birthday present. Or rather he bought it for me during our trip and said this will be my present: LV Alma, Epi leather.

Too bad, he sticks to his rationale: flowers are silly and they'll wither anyway.

Nevertheless, the biggest present still comes from Ning's card she drew and also the kids 'Happy Birthday' singing. Good thing, it was recorded.


From top right, anti-clockwise: Zhi (2YO), Ning (4YO), Mama (23YO, she wrote in reverse order), Papa (43YO) and Mickey Mouse.

Still in the midst of packing...

Yup... and still 5 more hours before we need to reach the airport. My mum just came to pick up Ning and later after dinner, we'll be sending Zhi to my in-laws place. One grandparent to take care of each kid.

But I wonder if we will be able to leave without the kids for holiday next year. Ning is showing a lot of signs of not wanting us to go. Lots of questioning, a lot of 'whys' and a lot of hugs and kisses before she left. She came back to hug me again after she left our place like 5 mins. And she told me she'll miss me most. Aiyo.....

I wonder what will be Zhi's reaction later. He usually wants only mummy to put him to sleep.

Crossing my fingers... and we'll be back on the 18th. First stop: Geneva, Switzerland.

Another Video of Ning

To continue from my previous post: In one of the months, the school's theme was 'People Around Us'. So naturally that includes family members, teachers and friends etc.

She came back with a chinese ryhme on 'Friends'. Here's the video of her reciting the rhyme:


Friends

What did Ning Learn in School?

On a regular basis, Ning will bring back her school work (in additional to all the monthly newsletter) and show us. Sometimes its artwork, sometimes Chinese poems etc.

So far, we're quite happy with the school's planning and activities. She gets to see a lot of children's play, went for numerous excursions and now she's learning the Tang poems and plants. Just last week, she asked me last what is CO2. And I told her its carbon dioxide. She told me her teachers are teaching her about how plants grow and make food. And we breathe out CO2. Wow... I thought I only learnt that in Primary 3 Science?

In the first half of the year, there was a monthly theme on occupation. And she got to learn about doctors, teachers, dentists etc. She got me to video this construction worker rhyme and I'm putting it up to share.



Construction Worker

There'll be some more videos coming up. She's been rather proud of her achievements and had always wanted us to video down. We gladly do that for her and for memory keepsake.

Treetop Walk - 2nd Attempt

In my previous entry, I talked about our "failed" attempt to make it to the HSBC Treetop walk because we parked at the wrong carpark.

Well, now that we found the nearer carpark to the walk, we made our 2nd attempt yesterday. If you're interested to go, the carpark is at Venus Drive.

The truth is, it was quite a mistake to be so ambitious. The distance from the carpark to the Treetop was more about 3.2km. And then the way back from the treetop to the Ranger's station was another 1km plus. So in total, we hiked, with the two kids for 4km.

Now, 80% of the time, we're carrying Zhi. And 30% of the time, Ning was being carried. It didn't helped when the tracks were pretty wet and muddy from the morning rain. We had thought since the weather was cooling, it'll be good to go hiking. But we forgot about the wetness of the ground.

To make this trip even memorable, right after our kids saw the huge lizard (see picture), Zhi got so scared that he refused to come down and walk anymore. So that explains part of the 80% carrying part. The other part that makes up the 80% came from the slippery ground and also he fell after running the first 50m of the hiking trail. Being a 'woman trapped in a man's body', Zhi complained of 'pain pain' and wanted us to carry him. The successful 20% came when I was so tired and angry at his refusal to walk, I literary pulled and scolded him to be brave and no lizards nor caterpillars are going to bite him.

As for Ning, the 30% of carrying happened right after she stepped on a huge caterpillar on the ground. And in the process, a 'cccrraaaccckkk' sound was heard. She was too traumatized and cried big time. That was when we had to carry her. Please do not mentioned 'caterpillars' to her for the time being. She'll start crying and felt horrid for killing the little worm.

The thing is, hiking can be fun. And being close to nature can be rather refreshing and enjoyable. Part of the hike reminded me very much of Kamikochi in Matsumoto, which we went to the Japan Alps two years ago. But it can be a pain if the kids are too young and had not much energy for a 4km walk.

On our way home, WF asked Ning if she had fun. Our little girl replied," Its not fun at all. We never play at all. We only walk and walk. I don't want to come here anymore." I think she summed it up pretty well.

Here are some photos we took:

We also made some discovery during this hike: That Zhi is afraid of heights!!! He was crying most of the time during our treetop walk. And kept mumbling 'scary... scary'... Sigh... I think our boy is more 'girlish' than our girl.

Anyway, the view is rather nice. It reminds us of the Capilano Suspension Bridge & Park in Vancouver (when we visited there in 2004).

Talking about the places we had went, we'll be leaving for Switzerland on Saturday and returning two weeks later. Between now and Saturday, I'll try to upload more entries and then when we come back on the 18th, I'll share more of our trip.

WF's Birthday - 21st August

Last Friday, we celebrated WF's birthday at home. I got him a strawberry shortcake which he likes and the kids sang him the birthday songs in bahasa Malay, English and Mandarin. Here's Ning's version of 'Happy Birthday' in Malay, though I am not sure if it was the correct version:


Happy Birthday in Malay

I must say, other than the sweentness we felt from the kids' singing and running around the house, the cake was also deliciously yummy. It was finished before I can have a second slice.